


Giving Back A LIfe

by Nihonkikuasa211



Category: Code Black (TV)
Genre: Author Apologizes For Her Many References To Japanese Culture, Doctor-Patient Relationships, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Medical Conditions, Mentioned Neal Hudson/Christa Lorenson, Post 1x18
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-23
Updated: 2016-04-23
Packaged: 2018-06-03 22:02:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6628375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nihonkikuasa211/pseuds/Nihonkikuasa211
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When a young woman with severe abdominal pain comes into Angles Memorial Hospital, will the ER doctors be able to save her life?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Giving Back A LIfe

**Author's Note:**

> This story is based on my own experiences, but that is not to say that the female character is me. Tell me what you think please!

                                                                                   _Giving Back A Life_

 

The young woman felt so much pain. It burned, white-hot centering around her stomach. _God…_ she thought. _God…_ She had managed to get out of bed and doubled-over, to anyplace where she would find somewhere where the pain would stop. The agony rippling through her stomach was enough that the girl had to stop and breathe. Her green eyes warily closed.

Violet Anson had been a normal seventeen-year-old, healthy for the past eight years, when her periods suddenly changed. Instead of her periods being regular, months would pass without the familiar sight of blood. When her periods finally came, pain was the only reality Violet had. It became her life soon enough. The agony was deep. The longest the pain lasted was five hours.

Coupled with nausea, her life was pure hell.

It had been hell for the past three years with no end in sight.

A sharp gasp tore from her throat at the sudden hot pain surging from her stomach to her vagina. So much…so much pain, searing pain that she now almost crawled to the bathroom.

_Nothing…compares to this,_ the dark-haired young woman thought as she collapsed onto the bathroom floor. She didn’t how she made it. Tears started to leak from her eyes at the pure relief, the bathroom tiles – with the slightly raised and round tiles that she had loved as a little girl – provided more relief than any ibuprofen could compare in the past couple of months. The tiles were cool – blessedly cool against her stomach. Her stomach, which had been normal until she had woken up from the sudden pain, was distended.

It felt somewhat hard against her wandering hands.

Even she knew that wasn’t a good sign. Her cell phone was clenched impossibly tight in her hands. It hurt so much. Even with the coolness, the pain was still there.

_Someone help!_ Violet wanted to cry out. _Someone! Please!_

She desperately wanted to go somewhere the pain would stop. With hardly a breath, the dark-haired young woman pressed in the numbers she never thought she would push.

_9-1-1._

_“911, what is your emergency?”_

Violet couldn’t speak. There was enough agony that she couldn’t speak. Tears trailed down her cheeks, feeling hot against her skin. The pain was almost as bad as when one of her cysts ruptured – she had been able to speak then, crying to her mother about the pain.

But now she couldn’t.

Only her breathing echoed into the cell phone.

_“We have your location now.”_ It was then that Violet realized she was still wearing her pajamas. Normally her heart would burst from embarrassment of how she was wearing _Hello Kitty_ pajamas, with the pink colors surrounded by smaller images of the said cat. Normally, she would be in bed sleeping.

It was three o’clock in the morning and December 27, 2016.

* * *

Dr. Leanne Rorish was exhausted. It was three a.m. in the morning, and it appeared that the flow of patients would not be stopping soon. The female attending had hoped to perhaps have a sip of coffee, but it appeared that those plans were now abandoned as she called the residents to follow her to where she heard the familiar wail of the ambulance.

“What have we got?” Leanne barked to the paramedic pushing the gurney into the ER. Leanne took a quick glance at the patient; young, probably nineteen or twenty years old. Her eyes squeezed shut in discomfort. Leanne quickly placed her stethoscope to the girl’s abdomen. _No fluid,_ Leanne thought as she withdrew other options that had appeared in her mind.

“What’s your name?” Leanne stated. The girl didn’t answer, and instead opened her eyes. A sliver of green appeared.

“She was in too much pain to respond,” the paramedic stated to the female attending as the dark-haired doctor could see Christa and Angus count to three to lift the patient onto the other gurney. “We weren’t certain what she had, so we didn’t give her any medication.”

Leanne sighed. Unresponsive patients such as this were the hardest to treat. They had no way to fully communicate with the girl who was in too much pain to respond with a distended stomach. The paramedic left to the entrance to the ER as a hash gasp tore through the room.

Suddenly Leanne turned to see the patient gasp. Christa instantly began to take her vitals, checking her pulse as the girl laid on the gurney with half-gasps emerging from her throat.

“It’s gone,” she murmured. Instead of being pleased, Leanne and the others stiffened, but the girl was in too much relief to notice. There was a faint rise in her chest and tears were building in her eyes.

 “We need a MRI of an abdominal area,” Leanne stated to Malaya, who nodded and started running to radiology. The attending starting speaking to the patient, who was starting to become aware of her surroundings.

 “My name is Dr. Rorish.” The patient looked up and tried to sit, but Christa encouraged her to rest. Looking closely at her, Leanne saw that the patient had dark brown hair, almost black, and her _Hello Kitty_ pajamas was in stark contrast to patients that Leanne had normally treated in the ER. “Do you know where you are?” she asked quietly, aware the Christa, Mario, and Angus were watching her.

 “In the ER,” the patient stated vaguely. Her green eyes looked around the ER in faint confusion. She looked down at her stomach, which was still slightly distended. “My name’s…Violet Anson,” she stated uncertainly.

“Do you know what happened to you, Violet?” Christa asked to the younger girl. The patient appeared to not be able to respond for a moment. Then she looked down at the gurney that she was lying and started to speak. As the young patient described her symptoms, Leanne could not help but feel a sense of unease. She could tell from the second-year residents that they felt the same.

“Do you have anyone to call?” Leanne asked.

The patient almost nodded, almost looking sheepish as she told the three standing in the ER that her mother was on a business trip and wouldn’t be back for several days.

Leanne said nothing more as she told Violet that she would be moved to a quitter area. _Usually she didn’t ask the normal questions of what a MRI scan was when I told her that she was going to have one. Either that means she’s had many in the past or…_

“I can’t believe this girl had that much pain from an ovarian cyst,” Christa stated to Dr. Rorish as she and the other residents started to walk away from their most recent arrival at Angels.

_It’s not just that,_ Leanne thought as she watched the familiar empathy fill Christa’s blue eyes as she stared at the dark-haired patient, for now free of pain.

Leanne bit her lip, not voicing the thoughts that wanted to come from her mind.

* * *

 

Dr. Christa Lorenson stared in dismay at the results of the MRI scan. The blond looked again at the results, but the result was the same. The second-year resident had been correct in why Violet Anson to an extent. An ovarian cyst had caused the patient enough pain that she wasn’t able to speak. There were many cysts attached to the ovaries. Only the one that Christa was staring at now had its own blood supply.

A tumor having its own blood supply was not good. Christa sighed. It appeared that the largest cyst had become cancerous. The second-year resident’s blue eyes wandered to where Mario and Angus were talking by the nurse’s lounge. Judging by the expressions on their faces, it appeared that the male residents knew as well that Violet Anson had ovarian cancer.

It was very unusual for a patient as young as the dark-haired patient to have ovarian cancer. _But then,_ Christa thought to herself, _it is a miracle itself of how Violet survived._ Violet was not a young woman who had to be told that she was pregnant or had an STI. The young patient had frowned in displeasure at drinking barium, telling Dr. Rorish that she would rather have an MRI than to have to taste barium again. That prompted a list of questions, of which the answers made Christa want to cry.

Violet had been born at twenty-five-week gestation to a drug-addicted mother. _“Most of the nurses in the NICU didn’t think I would live,”_ she replied with a small smile. _“But I did.”_ Ten years ago Violet had her second bowel resection surgery. _“I had my first when I was three weeks old.”_

_“Why did you have the bowel resection, Violet?”_

Christa pretended not to notice of how Violet answered the question as if answering about the weather.

_“The first was due to necrosis. The most recent one was that my bowel was stuck to my small intestine.”_

_And now this,_ Christa thought as she pulled a stray hair of her blond hair back behind her neck. _Violet has been relatively healthy since nine years old, until her periods were suddenly irregular and the pain came when she was seventeen._

“So what are you going to do?” Mario asked as he turned to Christa. The male resident looked at her carefully, and she noted of how he spoke carefully without trying to challenge her opinion, as he would have done in the past. Christa allowed herself a small smile at the growth that Mario had undergone. _He used to be such a jerk, but now I see him as a friend._

“I will tell her the truth,” Christa replied. The blond resident was surprised when Mario came with her without a reply. _She’s so young,_ Christa thought as she stared at the twenty-year old woman who looked like a child as she stared with boredom at the ceiling.

“Violet,” Christa stated as the young woman turned her gaze to find the two residents standing in front of her. “We have your results of the MRI.”

The young woman didn’t answer. Perhaps a part of her understood that the situation from the grave looks on the residents’ faces.

“Your cysts are what caused you so much pain,” Mario stated carefully. Only the slight tension of his shoulders showed Christa of how tense he was. “Except the largest one we found had its’ own blood supply, which signifies cancer.” There was a brief pause. “I’m sorry.”

“So…” Violet’s eyes widened. She swallowed, and tried to speak. “So, what are my options now?”

“You can start taking chemo and radiation,” Christa replied. It almost appeared to her that the young patient wasn’t aware of them. “You can also have surgery to remove the cancerous cyst.”

“Surgery.” Violet immediately stated. Christa’s expression concealed the shock she felt, and the second year resident could almost feel the incredulous look that was on Mario’s face. “I’m not taking chemo or radiation.”

_It’s poison,_ Christa agreed as she stared at the young patient whose eyes now seemed clear. Her heart clenched at the thought of her son, who had died too young and much too weak from the chemo and radiation that the doctors had stated would save his life. _But someone you like, Violet…it could save your life._

Christa cleared her throat and attempted to explain what she suspected that Violet already knew. “Violet, if we do the surgery on your abdomen, there’s a chance you could die.”

For the first time, Violet’s eyes widened in anger. Christa noted of how the young woman was now clutching the white sheets with hands, and trying not to stare at them.

“The adhesions –”

A soft peal of laughter emerged from Violet as Christa and Mario now stared at the patient in confusion.

“No one understands, do they?” Growing anger and pent-up frustration was in her voice, and Christa could see the green eyes, drowning in pain, were drowning in another emotion. “You don’t know, do you?”

“It doesn’t matter how many doctors I see. They all tell me, “‘wait.’” “‘Until you cannot handle the pain with medication, then we’ll talk about surgery’” because of my damn abdomen. I am _through_ with this.”

“You could die if we open you up, Violet.” Christa allowed her words to sink in, but it didn’t have the desired effect. “If…the surgeon opens you up, the bowel could be nicked.”

“I’m willing to take that chance.” Violet replied. She looked towards Mario, who was carefully observing the exchange. “Do you have any idea what it’s like?” Her anger seemed to fade, sadness – no, despair, framing her face as the young patient haltingly spoke to them. “At first my mother and I were joking about immaculate conception when my period didn’t come for the first time. I have zero interest in that kind of pleasure.”

“What do you like to do then?” Mario asked.

“I love to read,” Violet replied with an ironic smile. “But the pain has been too difficult these days to even to do that. Then came the pain after my periods came again. It was…terrible. Mind-numbing.” There was a pause. “There was so much pain for those god-forsaken hours I couldn’t even _think_. I just wanted to roll into a ball and disappear. People say that people like me who experience this kind of pain should wait because we might regret that we won’t be able to have children.” Harsh laughter tore from Violet’s throat, and Christa could _feel_ the young woman’s agony. “Who cares about that when every couples of months of your life, for hours and then for days, excruciating pain was all that remained in your life?”

Tears started to roll down her face. “That night,” Violet gasped as the tears rolled down her cheeks and onto the sheet, “I couldn’t…even speak. It was so bad. It was so bad that I…”

“Wanted to die?” Christa finished. Violet simply nodded. Mario came closer to the girl and his dark brown eyes clouded with empathy as he watched Christa hold the girl’s hand briefly.

“I have to talk to…Dr. Hudson about this.” Christa pretended not to notice the shark-like grin that came from Mario as she mentioned the said-surgical attending, catching herself to call the older doctor by his title and not his name. She gave him a warning, telling him to drop it as she started walking away. _I know Neal can do the surgery,_ Christa thought as she made a call to upstairs. Although it was purely a professional request, Christa’s smile widened at the thought of seeing Neal again. The two had managed to work out the problems in their relationship, and were simply happy to be by his side again. It didn’t matter that it appeared that the entire department knew of their relationship.

What mattered now was to save a girl who needed their help.

Even if it meant having to work with the egotistical Campbell.

* * *

 

Angus Leighton was surprised when he found the patient who had come in that morning to be in relative good spirits. Some patients, the light-haired resident had noted in his year in the ER, stared into space or didn’t do very much as they waited for results of an exam. A sign of stress or hope usually framed their faces. Violet Anson appeared to be writing something. Angus had been curious of how the young girl was doing, and he looked across from her now as he watched her write on a piece of paper.

“Where did you get that piece of paper?” Angus asked. Violet looked up and smiled at him slightly.

“Dr. Hudson gave it to me.” There were no signs of a crush, but Angus noted of how the young patient seemed to be fond of him moments after meeting him, it seemed. “He started asking me about the surgery, and I told him I was bored.” The green eyes appeared to gleam as Violet showed Angus the paper. “He gave me this.” On the paper were symbols that Angus couldn’t read. _I think they’re kanji,_ Angus thought as he stared at the multitude of characters staring back at him. The characters appeared to be some kind of triangle, with the characters vertical. The light-brown haired resident was surprised of how neat the characters looked.

“I haven’t had time to practice kanji in a couple of weeks,” Violet stated after Angus handed back the paper to her. “I’m studying Japanese, if that was your question,” she said to Angus’ questioning look. "I want to go there someday."

“What do those characters mean?”

“It’s more of a drawing, not a character.” Angus was somewhat amused to find the young woman slightly blushing. “In Japan, umbrellas are a sign of love in Japan, so I thought about drawing this, which is similar to of how in our culture we draw names on the trunk on a tree.”

“So these are names?” Angus guessed. _Who would she make them for though?_ Angus thought as he stared at the seven characters.

“I heard about what happened with Dr. Lorenson and Dr. Hudson, so I thought…”

It took only a moment for Angus to figure out what Violet had meant. _Mario…_ Angus thought fondly as he shook his head. _He can’t stay quiet, can he?_ Not to say that Angus wasn’t relived that Christa and Dr. Hudson were back together. It just seemed so… _Mario_ to talk about the affair that most of the department knew about besides the patients who came in here. Suddenly Angus could see another set of character under the so called love-umbrella.

“I wrote their names in katakana, and then…I wrote to them, “‘Thank you for understanding.’” No one really understood the kind of pain I was in before, kept telling me to wait, but after both of them listened…they understood.” Violet appeared somber, relief echoing in her eyes as she recalled a memory. “I never thought I would be this close to having my life back. I never thought I would be able to do the things I love to do again.” A wistful expression appeared across her face. “I never thought I would feel so grateful to doctors, those two especially.”

Although it had been almost a year since that time, Angus could understand where the emotion was coming from. Mario had saved him from himself. It took him a long time, but Angus now understood that Mario had stopped him from taking a path that would have led to drug addiction and losing his license. He too had thought that he had never felt so grateful for one single person. Although Mario and Angus both didn’t often talk about the days in which Angus was still detoxing, the second-year resident was forever grateful for his brother and Mario, especially Mario, for allowing him to live his life again.

_Perhaps I should do something too…_ Angus thought as he bid the brave – he had seen the test results and had read her terrible medical history – patient goodbye.

_Something special…_

* * *

 

Neal Hudson was aware of the patient slowly awakening from the anesthesia. Her green eyes blinked, her only focus on him as he explained to her that the operation had been a success. He could see the relief in Violet’s eyes, and softly smiled inside at the sight of tears of joy trailing down her cheeks. It wasn’t easy to work with Campbell – it never was with the conceding attitude the man possessed – but it was worth seeing the relief and happiness on the patient’s young face. Neal was surprised when the patient looked up at him and told him thank you.

“You helped me so much. Thank you for allowing me to live my life again.” Her voice was poignant but strong. She appeared to stare deeply into his eyes before whispering, “There’s something that I want to give to you. I think Dr. Lorenson already has it, though.” A slight frown appeared on her face. Neal thought she almost looked like a child with that expression, but then his mind became bewildered at her words. “It’s silly, but I hope you’ll like it.” Her eyes started to close.

“It’s not money or anything,” Violet sleepily stated as if she had heard Neal’s thought. “I don’t think you’ll get into trouble for that, right.?” She blinked. “Anyway, thank you…Dr. Hudson. Say thank you to the other doctors as well.”

Later Neal would find himself at the mockery of Mario and he could also see the amused glanced that Angus and Leanne gave him and Christa at the at the picture of the “love umbrella” their patient had drawn for them. _It is somewhat unusual compared to what…we’re used to here,_ Neal thought with a small smile at the thought of the patient Violet Anson. _But it is a kind gesture._

* * *

 

Meanwhile, Violet Anson slept peacefully in the first time in three years without fear of pain.


End file.
